Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-06-11
VALUE OF REFUSE.
CASH COINED BY THE DUSTMEN
 OF NEW YORK CITY.

OF NEW YORK CITY.
 The Work nt the Street Cleaning Dumps.
 How It Is Done-What Becomes of the
 Days ColIection-Strange Finds Sonae-
 times Made.
 Before the scows Of the street cleaning department are sent to sea with their car goes of street sweepings, ashes, garbage and refuse of every description, it is neces- sary to distribute this mass of unsavory material so that the scow will float evenly, and not dump the load together with the Italians who are employed to shovel the refuse, into the water, before the fleet reaches the boundary line within which the sanitary laws forbid the dumping of any material. The contractor who does this work is a broad faced, good looking Italian named Cicerelli who, when the contract was put up at auction, astonished all his competitors and the city authori- ties as well by bidding S275 per week for the privilege of sorting over this material
 The contractor has the right to retain and sell anything of value that may be brought to the docks when the scows are loaded, and an Italian will recognize a value in refuse material which would be
 
 nationality. There are sixteen docks along the water front of the North and East rivers where the collections of refuse are loaded upon the scows. Cicerelli sublets tbe privilege of sorting this waste at some of these docks to one or two of his friends The men who do the actual work of 'trimming'' the scows are almost eXclu- sively Italians of the lowest and most un- intelligent class. They are filthy and dirty in the extreme, and the clothes worn by them are in great measure cast off garments, found in the refuse as it is searched over and distributed properly in the scows by them. These men are paid small wages by the contractor or sub contractor, and are supposed to turn over to them all material on which it is possible to realize any money. Many small mat ters, however, fall to their lot in the course of work and whatever can be se- creted or slowed away and taken home does not go into the general harvest of the 'sboss.''
 The days collection of salvage goods is stored on or near the wharf until it is dis posed of to some speculator. Old tin cans, old shoes, broken umbrellas, bones, clothing coal and other refuse is carefully laid aside to await a purchaser. This material is generally sold in bulk to regu- lar customers, who dispose of their wares to the best advantage. The bones are carefully cleaned and sold to sugar re- liners, who make them into the bone black used for clarifying sugar Bones of larger size are sold to manufacturers of cutlery, who use them in making handles for razors and knives. The tin cans, bat tered and bruised out of all resemblance of the attractive form they have when they stand ill rows on the shelves of the grocery stores, are sold to buttoLmalzers. They are put in a fCrnace, the iron is melted out, and then the tin plate is rolled together and is run beneath heavy dies, which punch out the circular bits of metal used on the back of cloth covered buttons. The old clothes, such as are not appro- priated by the workers in the harvest field, are sold to the <Ag nleFchats In the summer time it is customary to put these collections of rags and old clothing in big wooden cage, such as is used for the drowning of stray dogs which haye | not been reclaimed from the pound, and to snbmerge it in the river twenty four '..Esz.zzzIIslIO15 sold. The broken umbrellas are sold to perambulating peddlers, who useA the ribs and sticks in making old umbrellas 'fas good as new
 Occasionally articles of considerable valpe and even money are found by the trimmers. It may seem impossible that such fragile article as a. fine porce- 1 laine vase could survive the vicissitudes | of a journey through an ash barrel, be | jolted over the rough pavements of this | city in a springless cart, be dumped from the cart distance of ten or fifteen feet l into a scow, and yet escape injury, but the writer was shown nCe long since hand some cream colored vase, about three inches high, on the side of which was l painted spray of forget-me -nots, which had been dug out from among the rub I bish on one of the scows of the depart l ment.
 Very frequently the men find silver spoons and forks while sorting over this refuse. These they sell to second hand dealers in silver, but sometimes they keep them for their own use. There is one Italian working on one of the dumps on the east side of the city who lives with his family, consisting of wife and eight children in two rooms in rear tenement in the t'Bend'' in Mulberry street, who has his table set with silver forks and spoons. He has collected fifteen spoons and eleven 1 forks, all of different patterns. These arti- cles get into the garbage pail by the care l lessness of servants, and even the rag pickers avoid these pails, and will not search through them for articles of value. l Every day some one on every dump in the city will find one or more coins. These never reach the contractrrs, but are pecketed by the finders.-New York Post
 Tendency of the Newspapers.
 The time is not far distant when the newspapers will crowd out all magazines